Cute like the smart girl

On Saturday, I took three science tests. They were the CSESTs - one general science subtest in physics & earth science, one general science subtest in biology and chemistry, and one specialized subtest in Chemistry. I spent all night Friday and all morning Saturday cramming - I read a 500 page textbook - then headed to the school picnic, grabbed some food, and went to the tests. Five hours is a very long time to sit still. Here is what I know: PV=nRT. R=.0821 (but they actually gave us that where it was required, I didn't need to know it). KE=1/2mv^2. I think. It might be heat instead of KE. Avogadro's number is 6.022 X 10^23 molecules/mole and is used for converting formula mass to grams.

Here's a sample of what I didn't know: that alpha particles, not beta particles, are helium nuclei. Whether the southern California coast is made of convergent, divergent, or two other options of plate boundaries. Actually, lots of other things about the earth, it's components, and the ways in which they might interact.

Here's a sample of what I was able to figure out: the structure of 1,5 dihexadyne and the ways in which its bonding differs from benzene's. the forces acting on a diver who experiences buoyancy (or something) at 15 meters. a bunch of different things about how much of this element or compound is required to react with that element or compound and that sort of thing.

The tests were exhausting. By the time they ended, I was almost incoherent. It wasn't that I couldn't think, it was just that I could barely put thoughts together to speak them. If I have to do this again, remind me not to do all three tests on the same day, even if it does seem more efficient.

I did the Chemistry multiple choice first because I started at question 1 and worked forward. Chemistry was what I'd crammed most and it was the hardest (objectively) of the tests. I got nervous about the free-response questions and I got stuck on the structure of 1,5 dihexadyne because of benzene's presence in the question, so I skipped them and went to the Bio/Chem general test, where I started with the free response. The nice thing about the free response is that you get partial credit as long as you're even partially right, so it is worth it to make stuff up. My knowledge about the structure of the leaves of flowering plants? Less than what I was able to draw and write about. But the drawing looked good and used fancy words like "photosynthesis" and "respiration" correctly. By this point I needed to stand up and walk around badly, so I used the restroom pass to get out of the room for a few minutes. Then I did the Bio/Chem multiple choice. Then I went back to the Chem free response which is when I realized that, duh, 1,5 dihexadyne is linear, not cyclical.

You have exactly 5 hours to complete as many tests as you're taking, so when the tests started, I calculated that I had about 1.66 hours per test. I finished the first two in about three and a half hours, so something more than I was calculating. And I left the most challenging test till last. The thing is, I figured that either everyone else is going to do poorly on the test and my dreadful score will get averaged out to passing or that is not the case and I'll fail. So I might as well maximize my chances on the other ones - more intellectual capacity wasn't going to help me where I didn't know the material. And, indeed, a depressing number of questions ask for straight knowledge.

Now I wait a month to find out how I did.

Today I did some (but not enough) grading, watched some TV, read a lot of blogs, and went on a walk. And had a freakout or two. Ah, the joys of Sunday, when I spend my time preparing for Monday.